I have to give Lovecraft props for coming up with some kind of alien being that looks completely non-Earthlike. Every other creature, with some kind of body structure (not blobs) is generally some bipedal/quadrapedal beast with a head and possibly a tail. These things are truly alien, and in the story it even goes into details of how the creatures themselves evolved over the millions of years they existed on the planet before they died out.

/story is a tough read at first, way too much attention to detail, specifically geological details

Does anyone remember some kind of syndicated "from the mind of HP Lovecraft" show that used to air after the late saturday night movie, in my neck of the woods, on an independent channel? it was a blonde chick wearing a black teddy, trying to escape some unseen force inher house. it used to show up every other week and, newsflash, a hot blonde in a sexy lace outfit had my attention. it wasn't a movie per se, it was like a 20 or 30 minute thing to fill time.

i kinda recall the bumpers being "now back to ___, from the mind of HP lovecraft". weird. haven't thought about that in year.s

Spindle:I have to give Lovecraft props for coming up with some kind of alien being that looks completely non-Earthlike. Every other creature, with some kind of body structure (not blobs) is generally some bipedal/quadrapedal beast with a head and possibly a tail. These things are truly alien, and in the story it even goes into details of how the creatures themselves evolved over the millions of years they existed on the planet before they died out.

His monsters are based on deep sea animals he would find washed up on the beach. Even the drawing in the link looks like a comb jelly mixed with a squid and a couple different things.

rickythepenguin:Does anyone remember some kind of syndicated "from the mind of HP Lovecraft" show that used to air after the late saturday night movie, in my neck of the woods, on an independent channel? it was a blonde chick wearing a black teddy, trying to escape some unseen force inher house. it used to show up every other week and, newsflash, a hot blonde in a sexy lace outfit had my attention. it wasn't a movie per se, it was like a 20 or 30 minute thing to fill time.

i kinda recall the bumpers being "now back to ___, from the mind of HP lovecraft". weird. haven't thought about that in year.s

I cannot recall the name, but it was run on late night WGN from time to time if that helps anyone here identify

Treygreen13:That's the sort of thing you see a guy on the train writing and move to a different car.

I remember riding the Metro into DT Chicago for a cleaning job I once had. There was always this homeless guy who would be scribbling crazy shiat in a notebook and literally everyone would avoid him. I never did, I always loved to engage the guy because it was like watching a Lovecraft novel come to life. My coworker even teased me relentless about but the way I figure it is....what if the guy is right?

rickythepenguin:Does anyone remember some kind of syndicated "from the mind of HP Lovecraft" show that used to air after the late saturday night movie, in my neck of the woods, on an independent channel? it was a blonde chick wearing a black teddy, trying to escape some unseen force inher house. it used to show up every other week and, newsflash, a hot blonde in a sexy lace outfit had my attention. it wasn't a movie per se, it was like a 20 or 30 minute thing to fill time.

i kinda recall the bumpers being "now back to ___, from the mind of HP lovecraft". weird. haven't thought about that in year.s

Is this it? Out of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft (TV Movie 1998)

rickythepenguin:yeah, exactly! it would just kinda show up and fill the remaining time in a block. a hot blonde screaming and crawling away from something, and lots of gratuitious shots of tits and ass.

Now Im going to be thinking about this all day until it finally comes to me

Omahawg:a resurgence in lovecraft thanks to the internet is somewhat baffling but I always enjoyed his writing.

he's a good writer, for a racist anglophile and technophobe

He's actually a fairly lousy writer by most accounts. He has a bad habit of reusing a couple dozen obscure adjectives in his stories (the only one I know he doesn't reuse is "squamous") and there isn't really a good rhythm to his prose. Not to mention he wrote stories that end with the narrator dying and writing out his death a la the Castle of Aargh! from Monty Python, which doesn't have the chilling effect intended.

No, he wasn't a good writer, but he was amazing at coming up with ideas radically outside the norm for his time. And it's not just the Old Ones and Elder Gods: The Colour Out of Space was written at a time when an alien invasion in a pulp book seemed to always be by creatures roughly human-sized.

ristst:One of my all time favorites is The Temple, about a U-Boat commander telling the story of their very "Lovecraftian" fate. I first read it in the 7th grade, and it's stuck with me over many decades.

effete- Conflicting evidence on this one. Sickly as a child, father commited when HPL was 3yrs old, lived isolationist lifestyle in early adulthood with only contact being his mother. Was married, and I believe his wife referred to him as a "adequately excellent lover"..although influence from female relatives was negative towards his marriage, and continued to influence him throughout his short life. Some say he was homosexual, but not corroborated.

archaic-Have to disagree on this one. Lovecraft's work contained themes that were highly advanced for the time they were produced.

slightly racist- no argument here, although he was a product of his era. Contemporaries such as Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith were similar in their views...the attitudes at that time were what they were, and they were widespread.

ristst:archaic-Have to disagree on this one. Lovecraft's work contained themes that were highly advanced for the time they were produced.

Excuse me....I assumed you were referring to his themes overall. If you're referring to his prose, then yeah he was somewhat archaic. But that's not necessarily negative, but rather a personal preference. Reading his work today, I don't have any problems understanding his choice of words.

Grungehamster:No, he wasn't a good writer, but he was amazing at coming up with ideas radically outside the norm for his time. And it's not just the Old Ones and Elder Gods: The Colour Out of Space was written at a time when an alien invasion in a pulp book seemed to always be by creatures roughly human-sized.

"Okay, this time the aliens are gorillas with skulls for heads inside a space suit! And they're after our women!"

"As opposed to last time when they were scuba divers with ape faces and frog legs after our women? Or human sized lizard men wearing business suits after our women? Or flying Mormons with ant heads who are after our women?"

ristst:effete- Conflicting evidence on this one. Sickly as a child, father commited when HPL was 3yrs old, lived isolationist lifestyle in early adulthood with only contact being his mother. Was married, and I believe his wife referred to him as a "adequately excellent lover"..although influence from female relatives was negative towards his marriage, and continued to influence him throughout his short life. Some say he was homosexual, but not corroborated.

I think "affected or overrefined" fits him pretty well. I didn't mean the effeminate connotation so much as the high-brow, snobby and disdainful aspects. Lovecraft did not have much respect for working men like farmers or fishermen, if his writing is anything to go on.

archaic-Have to disagree on this one. Lovecraft's work contained themes that were highly advanced for the time they were produced.

Okay, so what's a word that means focused on the past, on the culture, manners and architecture of days gone by? Lovecraft didn't like progressive big cities, he loved the ancient houses and gabled roofs of his own Providence. What's a word for a guy who liked using the word "shew"?

bill4935:Okay, so what's a word that means focused on the past, on the culture, manners and architecture of days gone by? Lovecraft didn't like progressive big cities, he loved the ancient houses and gabled roofs of his own Providence. What's a word for a guy who liked using the word "shew"?

Grungehamster:He's actually a fairly lousy writer by most accounts. He has a bad habit of reusing a couple dozen obscure adjectives in his stories (the only one I know he doesn't reuse is "squamous") and there isn't really a good rhythm to his prose. Not to mention he wrote stories that end with the narrator dying and writing out his death a la the Castle of Aargh! from Monty Python, which doesn't have the chilling effect intended.

No, he wasn't a good writer, but he was amazing at coming up with ideas radically outside the norm for his time. And it's not just the Old Ones and Elder Gods: The Colour Out of Space was written at a time when an alien invasion in a pulp book seemed to always be by creatures roughly human-sized.

I don't entirely agree here. HPL had a few side ventures, one being an editor of sorts to other writers. He was extremely erudite and was a skilled wordsmith, and as such many others enlisted him in this respect.

This entry from Wiki references his style and the critical reception he endured, and note the bolded words:

Lovecraft's style has often been criticized by unsympathetic critics, yet scholars such as S. T. Joshi have shown that Lovecraft consciously utilized a variety of literary devices to form a unique style of his own - these include conscious archaism, prose-poetic techniques combined with essay-form techniques, alliteration, anaphora, crescendo, transferred epithet, metaphor, symbolism and colloquialism.

Being a fantasy/horror writer during that era wasn't easy...a lot of critics despised his work as well as others such as C.A. Smith, saying that only deeply disturbed (or deviant) minds could produce such writings.

bill4935:ristst:effete- Conflicting evidence on this one. Sickly as a child, father commited when HPL was 3yrs old, lived isolationist lifestyle in early adulthood with only contact being his mother. Was married, and I believe his wife referred to him as a "adequately excellent lover"..although influence from female relatives was negative towards his marriage, and continued to influence him throughout his short life. Some say he was homosexual, but not corroborated.

I think "affected or overrefined" fits him pretty well. I didn't mean the effeminate connotation so much as the high-brow, snobby and disdainful aspects. Lovecraft did not have much respect for working men like farmers or fishermen, if his writing is anything to go on.

archaic-Have to disagree on this one. Lovecraft's work contained themes that were highly advanced for the time they were produced.

Okay, so what's a word that means focused on the past, on the culture, manners and architecture of days gone by? Lovecraft didn't like progressive big cities, he loved the ancient houses and gabled roofs of his own Providence. What's a word for a guy who liked using the word "shew"?

bill4935:Okay, so what's a word that means focused on the past, on the culture, manners and architecture of days gone by? Lovecraft didn't like progressive big cities, he loved the ancient houses and gabled roofs of his own Providence. What's a word for a guy who liked using the word "shew"?

csb:my great uncle was telling me about a literary convention he went to in Providence in the 70's where he met a young author named Stephan King and some movie director named George Romero. Well they were talking about Lovecraft and my great uncle goes "you want to go to his grave?" and they all went there and read some of his short stories.end csb

For people who like inspired nods and homages and also like Adventure Time, make sure to watch the 'Holly Jolly Secrets' episode. After all, He was just a simple Antiquarian researcher in the beginning...